Pompeii, the first 4000 years

Mark Robinson

Excavation over the past twelve years have shown the site of the ancient city of Pompeii to have been a favored locality for settlement since at least the middle Neolithic (4500BC). By the early Bronze Age (2000 BC), there was a village in Regio V where cereal crop were being processed. Pompeii largely escaped the effects of the great Avellino eruption of Vesuvius which devastated early Bronze Age life throughout large parts of Campania. Settlement continued throughout the middle Bronze Age (1500BC) and probably the late Bronze Age up to about 1000 BC when up to one meter of volcanic ash from a late AP eruption of Vesuvius covered much of the area of the town. Remains from the Iron Age re-occupation are sparse but there is some evidence for a Fossa Culture cemetery of around 800BC close to the Triangular Forum. The results of the 2016 excavation at the Stabian Baths also have major implications for understanding the development of the Altstadt.